Bruce Willis’s wife shares touching throwback Valentine’s Day photo

Willis’s family announced last year that his aphasia diagnosis had developed into frontotemporal dementia

Bruce Willis’s wife Emma has shared a touching throwback selfie to mark Valentine’s Day, as the action star continues to live with dementia.

Willis’s family announced in a joint statement last year that the Die Hard actor’s previous diagnosis of the brain disorder aphasia had developed into frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

British model Emma Heming Willis, 45, has shared a photo of her and Willis, 68, kissing in front of Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada, to mark Valentine’s Day.

In the photo, the pair embrace with the snow and ice-covered falls in the background.

"Love is a beautiful thing. Wishing you all a Happy Valentine’s Day," Emma wrote on Instagram.

The photo was taken in March 2010, the year after the couple married in 2009.

‘Love is a beautiful (Instagram via @emmahemingwillis)

They first met in 2007, years after Willis’s split from Brooke Burns. Bruce was previously married to Ghost actor Demi Moore, 61, whom he and Emma remain in close contact with.

The couple share two daughters, Evelyn, nine, and Mabel, 11. Bruce and Moore have three adult daughters together: Rumer Glenn Willis, 35, Scout LaRue Willis, 32, and Tallulah Belle Willis, 30.

Emma has been keeping fans updated on Willis’s condition on social media, as well as raising awareness of living with dementia and sharing her experiences of caring for a loved one with the condition. She will be releasing a book in 2025, which is a guide to caregiving that draws on her experiences of caring for Willis.

Speaking on the Today show in 2023, Emma opened up about the realities of living with dementia, for Willis and for their family.

“You know what I’m learning is that dementia is hard. It’s hard on the person diagnosed, it’s also hard on the family,” she explained. “And that is no different for Bruce or myself or our girls. When they say this is a family disease, it really is.”

Bruce Willis and his wife Emma photographed in 2019 (Getty Images for Film at Lincoln)

Willis’s ex-wife Moore appeared on Good Morning America last monthand was asked about Willis’s condition.

“What I’ll share is what I say to my children, which it’s important to just meet them where they’re at and not hold on to what isn’t, but what is,” she replied.

FTD is an “umbrella term” for a group of dementias that mainly affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, which are responsible for such things as personality, behaviour, language and speech, according to Dementia UK.

The symptoms can be distressing to family members, as they include reduced motivation, inappropriate behaviour, difficulty with planning or focusing on tasks and lack of awareness about the changes in themselves. Some people may also show a lack of interest in their activities, which is sometimes mistaken for depression, and some may exhibit a lack of empathy.

As the condition progresses, it can lead to speech and language issues like forgetting the meanings of certain words, difficulty writing, difficulty naming things, and gradual loss of vocabulary.

Emma said last year that she isn’t sure if her husband is aware of his disease, saying it’s “hard to know”. She added that she calls herself a “care partner”, rather than a “caretaker”.